New Delhi: Labour Party MP and British Lawmaker Debbie Abrahams who chairs a parliamentary group focused on Kashmir was not allowed permitted to enter the country after she landed at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport today.
Debbie Abrahams and Indian aide Harpreet Upal had arrived in India on Emirates flight from Dubai at 9 am. The immigration officials did not cite any particular reason for denying permission and revoking Ms. Abrahams visa which was valid until October 2020 said Mr Upal.
Ms. Abrahams has been a member of Parliament since 2011 and was on a two-day personal trip to India, she said in a statement.
“I tried to establish why the visa had been revoked and if I could get a `visa on arrival’ but no one seemed to know,“ she said in the statement.
“Even the person who seemed to be in charge said he didn’t know and was really sorry about what had happened. So now I am just waiting to be deported … unless the Indian Government has a change of heart. I’m prepared to let the fact that I’ve been treated like a criminal go, and I hope they will let me visit my family and friends.”
Debbie Abrahams attracted attention for being an outspoken critic of the August 5, 2019 abrogation of Article 370 in J&K.
Ms. Abrahams also wrote a letter to India’s High commissioner to the UK that the abrogation action “betrays the trust of the people” of Kashmir, shortly after the Kashmir special status was revoked.
Access to the region remains tight, with no foreign journalists allowed.